1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to assembly structures and assembling methods of a flat type display device and, more particularly, to assembly structures and assembling methods in which on the periphery of a display panel such as ones of a liquid crystal display device, EL (electro luminescence) display device, and plasma display device there are mounted a flexible wiring board having ICs (integrated circuits) for driving this display panel as well as a common wiring board for receiving external input signals.
The present invention also relates to apparatus and methods for supplying and curing resin to fabricate assemblies of electronic components or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As shown in FIG. 15, a commonly used liquid crystal panel 101 is so constructed that liquid crystals 123 are sealed by a seal 124 between a pair of glass substrates 121 and 122 and a large number of electrode terminals 111 are disposed on the periphery of one glass substrate 122. In the assembled state, on the periphery of the liquid crystal panel 101 there are also provided a flexible wiring board 103 having drive ICs 102 for driving this liquid crystal panel 101 and a common wiring board 104 for receiving external input signals (assembled panels, hereinafter referred to as "module").
Conventionally, the assembling has been implemented in such a way that the glass substrate 122 and the common wiring board 104 are juxtaposed both on a frame 130 so that their respective electrode terminals 111 and 105 are directed upward and then output terminals 113 and input terminals 114 of the flexible wiring board 103 are connected to the electrode terminals 111 and 105, respectively.
Also, the thickness of the frame 130 is relatively large so as to increase its rigidity, and both the liquid crystal panel 101 and the common wiring board 104 are integrated to the frame 130 by bonding with an adhesive or double-coated adhesive tape, or by fixing with screws or clips (not shown).
Further, as shown in FIG. 16, for the purposes of moisture protection and mechanical reinforcement, the portion around an end face of a glass substrate 121 is often coated with a silicone base protective resin 106 so that protective resin 106 can cover the connecting points between electrode terminals 111 and output terminals 113. The reason why the protective resin 106 is provided by a silicone base material is that it has less effect in shrinkage stress or the like upon the connecting points, compared with epoxy base resins.
For such flat type displays as liquid crystal display devices, it is required to reduce the area of the peripheral region where wiring boards and others are disposed as much as possible, compared with that of the display area where an image is displayed actually. In accordance with this requirement, the aforementioned drive ICs 102 have been developed as those having a lateral chip width of 2 mm or so in FIGS. 15 and 16.
However, the common wiring board 104, as shown in FIG. 14 (as viewed from top), is so constructed that the input terminals 105, 105, . . . for the drive ICs 102, input signal lines 107, 107, . . . laterally extending from each input terminal 105, and common signal lines 108, 108, . . . for connecting the input signal lines 107 with their adjoining drive ICs each through a through hole 109 are provided in a dense arrangement, where the number of the input signal lines 107 is generally ten up to several tens. Accordingly, the width of the peripheral region could be narrowed only to 10 mm or so even if the diameter and interval of the through holes 109 are narrowed to the possible minimums. Thus, the above-described conventional assembly structure cannot allow the area of the peripheral region to be substantially reduced, to a disadvantage.
Also, as shown in FIG. 15, the flexible wiring board 103 is exposed to outside of the panel so that vibrations and impact forces tend to be applied to the flexible wiring board 103 as external forces. When this occurs, the flexible wiring board 103, being flexible itself, would be deformed causing a stress to be applied to the input-side connecting point 105 or the output-side connecting point 103. For this reason, the connecting points are easy to peel off on either the input or output side, resulting in lower reliability.
To solve this problem, as described above, the thickness of the frame 130 is increased in order to increase the rigidity and moreover the panel 101 and the common wiring board 104 are both integrated to the frame 130 by a frame fixing member, e.g. an adhesive. However, the thicknesses of the frame 130 and the frame fixing member in turn would make it difficult to thin the module, inevitably resulting in rather large size of the module. Moreover, increased material costs of the frame 130 and the frame fixing member as well as increased manpower (working hours) required for their integration are also involved, incurring increased cost of the module.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 16, for the purposes of moisture protection and mechanical reinforcement, the protective resin 106 is employed to coat the connecting points between the electrode terminals 111 and the output terminals 113; however, it alone could not suffice.